15/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, Finland decided to ratify the European Constitution through Parliament (probably before the start of its period of Presidency of the EU). Finland will thus, in the wake of Estonia (see EUROPE 9188), become the 16th country to have ratified the Constitutional Treaty. According to Reuters, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said that this decision would not significantly alter the fate of the Constitution, but it could have a positive impact on the atmosphere within the EU and, in the long term, on the content of an agreement too. He went on to say that if the Finns had not ratified the Constitution because of the decisions of France and the Netherlands, then that would have allowed those two countries to make Finland's choice for it. Left wing parties and groups have launched a petition with 50,000 signatures, calling for a referendum on the Constitution to be held.